Lady Eagles pound Hereford, 70-38

By JAMES BARRINGTON Canyon News staff

Published 10:15 am, Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The district champion Lady Eagles met Hereford’s Lady Whitefaces at Tascosa High Monday evening. After picking away at them for the first half, a 24-8 third quarter blew the game open for Canyon and set the stage for the 70-38 bi-district victory.

With Kaitey Harris, Jenna Terry and Calista Winings moved up from the Junior Varsity for the game, all 15 girls who were suited up saw playing time, and 12 scored points.

After the game, Lady Eagle head coach Joe Lombard said, “Whenever you have your first game in the playoffs, there’ always going to be a little case of nerves. I though we were a little bit ‘nervy’ to start the game. We played a little bit, on offense, fast. Then on the defensive end, we we’re communicating to each other, so we didn’t always guard the screen and roll the way we wanted to. As the game dragged on we got better. In the third quarter we played some of our best basketball. Brittany Morgan and Shelby (Bartley), along with Madison Parker, I thought those guys did some good things for us there - not just scoring, but also rebounding. Our rebounding got better the second half. At times we were a little sloppy and not executing the way I wanted to, but for the first game of the playoffs, I’m happy for the team. We just need to understand now that each game will get progressively tougher. We need to continue to improve and cut down on mistakes and take care of our business.

“We’ve got some different kids who can come in and help us off the bench. There were some good things there tonight, off the bench, as well as with our starters. We still want to clean things up and play a little better, but it was certainly a good start to the playoffs.”

The Lady Whitefaces controlled the tip-off and scored the first two points, barely 10 seconds into the game, but Caitlyn Cunyus provided the quick answer, hitting from beyond the arc for three. Parker hit one of two free throw opportunities a minute later to stretch the Canyon lead to 4-3, but a Hereford bucket gave them the lead at 5-4. At that point, Angel Hayden won a fight for the ball under the basket and put it back up for two. The Lady Eagles continually built on that 6-5 lead. Hayden hit another basket and then two free throws. Morgan added a two-pointer to stretch the Canyon lead to 11-5 before the Lady Whitefaces could find the goal again. Bartley hit her first basket with five second remaining in the first quarter, and the Lady Eagle were leading 13-7 with eight minutes gone.

The Lady Eagles scored 19 points in the second period. Parker and Morgan piled up points, both heading toward double-digit scoring. Hayden hit for nine points, Bartley added eight and Morgan put up seven. Hiner added five points, all in the fourth period on a three and a two in the last two minutes of the game.

The Lady Eagles took a 32-19 lead into the halftime lockers.

The 24-8 third quarter blow-out broke the back of the Lady Whitefaces. The Lady Eagles emerged from the locker rooms with their “nerves” calmed and ready to play both offense and defense. Parker put another nine points up, with Morgan adding five and Bartley four. Bailey Byrd hit a foul shot with 40 seconds remaining on the third quarter clock, and then put in a two-pointer as time expired. Savannah Bartlett hit both of her foul shot opportunities in the third for her contribution to the total score.

Although all the girls who had carried the bench during the regular season contributed to the team effort during the first three quarters, the girls who were up from JV got into the game for playoff experience during the final period. Terry scored the last three points of the game when she converted a three-point play by sinking a charity shot with 4.6 seconds remaining on the clock. Lauren Hiner and Alyx Cordell each hit a three-pointer during the fourth, and Brianne McDowell added a point when she hit the second of two foul shot opportunities.

Parker led the Lady Eagles in scoring with 17 points, adding four steals. Morgan scored 12 points and served up four assists. Hayden scored nine points and Bartley added eight, also nabbing 10 rebounds. Cunyus added six assists to her four points.

Canyon will next face El Paso Eastlake in the area round on at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Seminole High School. Eastlake, the second place team in district 2-4A, defeated El Paso Chapin, the third place team in district 1-4A, by a score of 53-24 Monday evening.

While Randall was set to meet Frenship in Abernathy for their bi-district contest, Amarillo and Palo Duro joined Canyon in their games on Monday night. Amarillo High defeated Lubbock Monterey 52-37. Their area round opponent will be the winner of the Hanks-Bowie bi-district game.

Meanwhile Palo Duro fell to district 4-4A champion Plainview. Plainview will play El Paso Jefferson in their area round. The winner of that game will meet the winner of the Canyon-Eastlake game in the regional quarterfinal.